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explained eagerly. "When we saw we could not fight them, Owain and I pretended fear. We clung together, making no attempt to escape or wrest the pikes from them. We thought, sooner or later, they would become incautious. When the door opened, and we saw two unarmed men" |
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"Well thought and well done," Ian approved. "It was the only chance you had. Now hurry to make ready. This is like to be an ugly battle. Oh, be sure to look upon the walls for those who" |
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"They are not here," Sir Peter interrupted. His tone was indifferent with hopelessness. "It was my own squiresgrown men now but with nowhere to go but my serviceand my wife's brother. I sent them out before I released you, my lord. I would not have them die also for my fault." |
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Ian said no more, but his eyes signaled Owain to look anyway. Although he believed Sir Peter, he would not dismiss the chance that this was all arranged so that he would "die in battle." He turned back to Sir Peter. |
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"What said this message from Gwenwynwyn?" |
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A faint color rose into Sir Peter's gray face, a small signal of the shame and wrath he would have felt if all emotion had not been deadened by despair. "It offered me three choices. The first was to kill you and send out your squires as prisoners into his hands. If I did this, I would not have to open my keep to him. He would take me as vassal, he promised, and protect me both from Llewelyn's wrath and the king's. If I did not like the idea that your squires would cry aloud of my treachery, I could have a second choice. I could kill you all three. If I made this choice, however, I must yield the keep to him, since for our own safety it must seem as if you died in battle." |
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"He did not explain how such seeming would be supported? And the third choice?" |
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"War" Sir Peter's eyes, which had been steadfastly fixed upon his own lax hands or upon the floor, at last |
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